News / Mobile phones

Auto-Renewal of apps deactivated due to price hikes in European App Store

For some applications within the App Store, auto-renewing automatically every month is a nice gesture meant to make keeping the content streaming without having to worry about remembering to pay the monthly dues.

However, due to changes implemented by Apple recently within several regional App Stores around the globe, it appears that the auto-renewal process has been canceled altogether. The changes to the App Store prices in some regions reflects exchange rate fluctuations, and reflecting some changes to taxes in some regions. While the changes were necessary on Apple’s part, it hasn’t gone without a hitch for many users.

According to a report published by MacRumors, and citing individuals affected by the change (including Popular Science UK editor Tom Royal), it would appear that the changes in app pricing has caused the auto-renewal process for those apps to get automatically cancelled. As noted in the image above, with the pricing of the app changing, the auto-renewal was cancelled, with options directly below to get the process started again.

The trouble for some users has been the apparent lack of communication from Apple that these apps are losing their auto-renewal option, even if the subscription, as noted in the image, is still a few weeks out (in some cases). While Apple did give developers notice that price changes could be taking place in some regions around the world, the actual details of those changes, beyond just apps getting a price change, were not known. Indeed, losing a monthly subscription without warning would certainly be frustrating.